


Glow

by aromanticjungkook (missbutterfly)



Series: Drabbles [4]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Pining, Selfies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-21 22:40:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17651234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missbutterfly/pseuds/aromanticjungkook
Summary: It's been a long time since Wakaba accepted her feelings.





	Glow

Wakaba remembers when they met.

Zhenya was tiny in a different way to Wakaba’s short stature. She remembers seeing Zhenya’s thin wrists and ankles, her narrow shoulders, and then the way her face was made of stone as she glared into the middle distance. The hyperfocus was incredible and Wakaba had to force herself to look away, shake her head until she could concentrate on her own warm up. After that there’s the blur of the competition and then the sudden memory of Zhenya introducing herself. Wakaba remembers the way her face lit up, the steel in her eyes long gone, glowing from within with warmth and kindness, and the sweet way her nose scrunched when Wakaba butchered the complicated pronunciation of her name. They had exchanged numbers, and, armed with minimal english, they spent every other day glued to their phones.

Nothing much has changed, Wakaba thinks, as her phone lights up with another message from Zhenya. She’d been updating Wakaba all day as she navigated the tense atmosphere of Russian Nationals. Wakaba has been busy with her own preparations for Japanese Nationals, but she makes sure to check her phone whenever she can. If she gets some stern looks from her coach then so be it, it’s not like she isn’t working hard every other second of the day. Wakaba smiles when she’s sees its a photo, assuming it’s a picture of Zhenya’s outfit for the - absurdly formal - skating order draw. 

When Wakaba opens it, her heart seizes in her chest. It’s just for a second, but it knocks the breath from her. She was half right, it _is_ to do with the event but instead a picture of Zhenya’s dress, it’s a selfie. This usually wouldn’t be anything special, Wakaba has been the recipient of many selfies before, usually of Zhenya drenched in sweat after practice, doing some ridiculous pose into a mirror or with a friend, but this is different. Zhenya looks beautiful, and not in the way Wakaba always thinks she looks beautiful. She’s looking up to one side under her lashes, the soft makeup smudged around her eyes only serving to make them look bigger as they catch the light, her usual bright grin replaced with something smaller, shier, more private. There’s something about it that catches in Wakaba’s chest. The dark curl of Zhenya’s perfectly pinned hair around her ears and over her forehead against the peachy rose glow in her cheeks and the gold dress peeking into the frame completes the image so perfectly that Wakaba is reminded of old paintings; the way the women in them would look too soft to have ever existed. 

Wakaba has to look away from it for a second. 

It’s been a long time since she accepted her feelings. She gave up denying it not long after Zhenya moved up to seniors without her, after weeks of looking around automatically at competitions, going to catch Zhenya’s eye and then realising that you can’t get the attention of someone who isn’t there. The way it felt like her insides were aching until her phone would ping happily with a message of encouragement was hard to ignore. It wasn’t difficult to acknowledge, not really, not when she finally connected the heat in her cheeks directly to the curve of Zhenya’s smile. Wakaba is okay with it honestly, it became part of her, and she’s been managing it so well. 

But now.

Wakaba bites her lip as she looks back at the selfie and then has to glance away again as her face starts to burn, her heart fluttering a chaotic rhythm under her ribs.

Underneath the selfie is a tiny caption that makes Wakaba want to throw her whole phone away.

 **Zhenya (ᗒᗨᗕ):** do I look ok?

She scoffs, thinking about it, but wholly unable to to look back at her phone without blushing. When the screen finally darkens and locks it feels like a reprieve. Her heart won't stop it’s frantic pounding. For a second she thinks Zhenya is purposefully trying to entice a response, but then feels guilty. This event is really important to her, of course she would want some reassurance that she looks ready to face anything that will come with being there. Suddenly, thinking about Zhenya waiting for Wakaba’s reply, anxiously glancing over herself in mirror, makes Wakaba feel awful. It’s incentive enough to open her phone, and while she has type with shaking fingers - Zhenya’s gentle gaze staring at her all the while - she manages to quickly send a reply. Wakaba doesn’t have time to consider if it’s too honest because her coach is giving her a deadpan stare from across the ice, so she tucks her phone away and gets back to work. If she plans on setting that selfie as her phone background later, well, no one needs to know that just yet.

 **Me:** Beautiful as usual !!! (´ε｀*)

Busy practising, Wakaba doesn’t hear it when her phone vibrates again.

 **Zhenya (ᗒᗨᗕ):** I wish you were here (ﾉ∀`♥)

**Author's Note:**

> more soft girls being soft since a few people really seemed to like the last lil drabble, so i present u with mutual pining uwu 
> 
> tbh i really like writing these two and i hope i managed to do them justice ;; there needs to be more cute wakazhenya in the world


End file.
